The present invention relates to a medical telemetry system including a telemeter (transmission apparatus) which wirelessly transmits biological signal data that are acquired by measuring the blood pressure, heart rate, and the like of a living body, and a receiver which remotely receives the biological signal data.
In an inpatient ward of a hospital or the like, such a medical telemetry system has been used for monitoring the condition of a patient. JP-A-2005-168600 discloses a related-art telemeter which is portable by a patient. A patient can freely move in an inpatient ward while measurements of biological signals are continued. A specific carrier frequency (wireless communication channel) which is used for wirelessly transmitting biological signal data to a receiver is allocated to the telemeter.
An example of such a receiver is a central monitor which is disposed in a nurse's station or the like. A receiver of this kind can receive biological signal data which are transmitted through a plurality of channels, and can receive biological signal data transmitted from a plurality of telemeters which are attached to different patients, to collectively display and record the data.
In order to adequately manage biological signal data transmitted from telemeters, information of a patient must be correctly corresponded to information for establishing communication (for example, the channel number and the production number of the apparatus). The work of establishing correspondence is manually performed on the side of a central monitor. For example, a case where a telemeter to which channel 1 is allocated is to be attached to patient A, and that to which channel 2 is allocated is to be attached to patient B will be considered. An operation of corresponding channel 1 to patient A and channel 2 to patient B is adequately performed on the side of the central monitor, and the correspondence relationships are stored in a storage portion of the central monitor. Thereafter, a reception channel is adequately selected, so that biological signal data which are acquired by measuring patients A and B can be displayed collectively or selectively. In the case where the manual input is not correctly carried out, such as that, while the telemeters are attached respectively to patients A and B as described above, the channel numbers are erroneously input so that channel 1 is corresponded to patient B and channel 2 is corresponded to patient A, biological signal data of patient A which is remotely monitored through channel 1 are recognized as those of patient B, and biological signal data of patient B which is remotely monitored through channel 2 are recognized as those of patient A. Misidentification of patients under remote monitoring may cause a serious medical accident.
By contrast, even in the case where the correspondence relationships between the patients and the channels are correctly input on the side of the central monitor, when the telemeters are not correctly attached to the patients, a similar situation occurs. In the case where an input operation is performed on the side of the central monitor so that channel 1 is corresponded to patient A and channel 2 is corresponded to patient B, when the telemeter to which channel 1 is allocated is attached to patient B, and that to which channel 2 is allocated is attached to patient A, for example, medical biological signal data of patient B are input to channel 1 which should receive those of patient A, and biological signal data of patient A are is input to channel 2 which should receive those of patient B. The related-art telemeter disclosed in JP-A-2005-168600 includes a display device which displays measured biological signal data, but does not have a function of displaying information which can identify a patient. Therefore, the possibility that a telemeter is attached to a patient who is different from the original one cannot be eliminated.